The Smiths and Joneses (30 page)

              “The citizens of the LSA have to spend days standing in line for the goods most of the rest of the world takes for granted.

              “While the LSA shows off their plastic family, they hide behind the bullshit propaganda of global warming and pollution so their citizens do without. The average life in the LSA is much different than what you’re seeing on this program. We’ll now return your stations to their normal program. Remember, what their showing you isn’t the truth.”

              Seconds pass like hours as the screens on everyone’s devices return to their normal programs. People are wondering which version of the LSA is correct. Is the Smith family or the lines of people waiting on long lines to purchase a roll of toilet paper the real LSA?

              Millions of posts flow across the internet defending both viewpoints.

              Jason and Sharon are overwhelmed by the phone calls, emails and tweets asking them which story is correct. A PR aide to President Bloomberg visits them to guide them what to say to those who question the program and/or their lifestyle in the LSA. Senior officials at Wolf and CNN discuss the situation, neither knows what the correct story is. Calls to President Bloomberg aren’t returned causing the networks to question if they’d been set up.

              Sean calls Wolf’s cell, “Wolf, Sean here, before we continue planning the next episode, can you shed any light on what Anonymous showed versus the program we’ve been showing?”

              “Sean are you going to believe what I tell you?”

              “Of course I will.”

              “OK, the answer is, it’s very complicated, in a manner of speaking, both are correct.”

              Sean is caught flatfooted; he didn’t expect that answer. He was expecting Wolf to back the program and say Anonymous was full of shit.  Wolf told Sean both were true. Sean is thinking, “How can both be true?”  Sean doesn’t respond for a long time forcing Wolf to ask,

              “Sean, are you still there?”

              “Yes, I’m here, I’m trying to figure out what you just told me, I’m trying to figure out which sections of which story are true.”

              “Why don’t we advance the time of our flight and I’ll show you what you want to see.”

              “I like that, what time do you want to meet at the airport?”

              “Can you round up the team in an hour?”

              “Yes, the team is waiting for my call, we can at the FBO terminal in an hour.”

              “I’ll see you there.”

              Ending the call, Wolf places an urgent call to President Bloomberg asking for advice.

              “President Bloomberg’s office.”

              “This is Wolf, ID number WB0976532ZX; I would like to speak with the President.”

              “One moment please while we check your ID. It’s confirmed. The President said if you called to inform you, he will contact you at 3PM today, you are to be in a location where you can take the President’s call and engage the secure mode on your phone.”

              “I will be on a plane at that time, is there another time we can speak?”

              “Sir, my instructions are to pass along to you a message, President Bloomberg is currently tied up and can’t be interrupted. May I inform the President that you will comply with his request?”

              “Yes you may.”

              Wolf disconnects his call to the Gray House and places a call to the fixed base operations at the Raleigh, North Carolina airport. When connected he asks, “Hello, this is Wolf, is our captain available?”

              “Sir, the captain, is at the main terminal filing your flight plan, he got your message you and Sean requested to take off early today, he left a message in case either of you called to say the plane would be ready to leave on time.”

              Knowing he’s screwed himself, he thanks the FBO manager and disconnects the call thinking, “I’m going to have to take the President’s call while on the plane while also finding someplace I can speak with the President in private. Where the hell on an airplane can I speak with him in private?” Wolf decides to ask the flight attendant when he boards.

              Sean’s phone rings while he’s enjoying a second cup of coffee, “Hello, this is Sean.”

              “Sean, please hold for President Paul.”

              “Yes sir.”

              “Sean?”

              “I’m here Mr. President. What can I do for you?”

              “I’d like you to see if you can get to the bottom of which side of the LSA is real.”

              “Sir, I’ve given this a lot of thought, I think both are correct.”

              “Can you please explain your reasons why you accept both sides?”

              “Sir, we’ve been given full access to the Smith’s home and lives, there’s very little they do we haven’t seen or know about. On the other hand, we’ve never discussed shopping or shortages, as such I think both are real, we haven’t heard about shortages or shopping simply because we didn’t ask. Their television set was right in front of us; we never gave a second thought to what it was made from. We didn’t recognize the brand, so we asked, as to the composition of the case we didn’t think about it. Same with plastics, we didn’t go looking through their house for differences in appliances. Their bathrooms are always stocked with toilet paper, so we never gave it a thought. I guess the government stocked them up with extras since we and our broadcast crew would be in the house and we know the government gave Sharon permission to buy additional food to offer us snacks.”

              “How do you plan on getting to the bottom of the question?”

              “Mr. President, first I plan to ask Jason and Sharon, next I’m going to ask our driver to show us more of the town. I’m also going to start interviewing the Smith’s neighbors, I’m sure at least one may tell us something. Sir, did President Brownstone leave you contact information he used to reach Anonymous?”

              “No, he didn’t. That’s a good point. He had the means to contact them; I’ll reach out to ask him directly if he can help me get in touch with them. Maybe they have more material recorded.”

              “Sean, if the video Anonymous showed is true, we’ll have won a major PR victory over LSA. There’ll be no place President Bloomberg will be able to hide once the world sees the real result of twelve years of progressive rule. When are you heading back to the LSA?”

              “As soon as I reach the airport, within half an hour.”

              “Sean, be careful, I’m sure their DepLIES will be watching everything you do and say.”

              “I’m always careful Mr. President.”

              “Thank you, I’ll be watching tonight, along with 200 million others.”

              “Yes sir, thank you sir.”

              “Sean, you’re doing a good job. Keep it up. Have a safe trip.”

              “Thank you Mr. President.”

              The call disconnected. Sean thought to himself, “I bet both are true, if so I feel sorry for Sharon and Jason having to spend so much time waiting in lines.”

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              “Ron, thank you for agreeing to meet with us.”

              “I didn’t think I had a choice, what do you want?”

              “The same as you’ve always wanted, to protect our people and keep them safe. Isn’t this what you spent the last thirty years of your life doing? We’re sure you’ll want to help us keep our people safe.”

              “I thought you people saw and heard everything that happened with your people.”

              “We don’t comment on security issues. Would you please take us through what you saw when you and your lovely wife, her name is Beverly isn’t it, saw when you exited the hotel into the uprising?”

              “Are you indirectly threatening me by telling me you know who my wife is?”

              “No, we never indirectly do anything. If I wanted to threaten you, I would just do it.” Smiling, the DepLIES captain pulls up a chair to sit across from Ron. “I have all the time in the world to listen to you, however I understand you’re on a tight schedule, so the quicker you begin, the quicker you can return to your wife and enjoy the time you have left.”

              “What are you even doing operating in the USA?”

              “Since so many of our people visit Las Vegas, we have a handshake agreement with the LVMPD and your Department of Defense. Would you like a glass of water or cup of coffee?”

              “Coffee please, where do you want me to start?”

              “In the beginning.”

              “1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters…”

              SLAP, a gloved hand struck Ron across his right cheek. “Stop the bullshit, you know what I meant. It’s not a good idea to piss me off.”

              “You have no authority here.”

              “If you want to test that theory, then continue the bullshit. The chief of the LVMPD will be here very quickly to chat with you.”

              “I suggest you at lest get him on the phone for me to speak with.”

              “OK, you asked for,” Dialing a portable phone, Ron hears the captain say, “Chief, I’m sorry to bother you, our special guest doesn’t want to cooperate and he seems to think we have no authority here. Would you mind speaking with him, ask him to answer our questions.”

              The captain hands Ron the handset, “Hello?”

              “Ron, this is Chief Graveson, LVMPD, you would be doing me a real favor in answering the captain’s questions. I promise you, as soon as you answer their questions you will be returned to your hotel unharmed and with a prepaid debit card with $5,000 credit on it.”

              “You’re paying me to cooperate with them?”

              “Not me, not the LVMPD, the LSA will be paying you.”

              “How do I reach you if they decide to try to harm me?”

              “Place the call on speaker.”

              Ron clicks on the speaker for the audio output the chief says, “Captain, I’d like Ron to be able to hold the handset and have the ability to contact me directly in case he feel threatened. Will you agree to this request?”

              “Of course. Ron, keep the phone, the speed dial to the chief is number 2. Just place your finger on the number 2 and hold it there for a count of three, the phone will dial the Chief’s private phone. Is this acceptable?”

              “Yes it is. Thank you.”

              “Chief, thank you.”

              “Ron, shall we get started now without the smart ass comments?”

              “Captain why do you want my comments?”

              “Because as a police officer for thirty years, we think you may have seen something that we missed. Will you agree to help us catch whoever harmed our people?” 

              “Do you plan to take revenge on USA soil?”

              “To be honest, I don’t know yet. If we learn anything new from you, we’ll discuss it with the chief before we take action.”

              Laughing, Ron replies, “I’m sure you will, but OK, let’s get started. I assume you have the videos recorded from the various phones which the LVMPD collected at the scene?”

              “Yes, which is how we know you were in the middle of the event.”

              “Let’s start with you replaying the videos, I’ll try to give you my insights to what the videos show.”

              “Sergeant, please start the videos.”

              Ron starts expanding on the videos, he tells the sergeant to stop and start the videos, so he can point out various people and locations in the videos. After two hours the captain says, “Ronald, I was right, you have a trained eye. You added a lot of information we didn’t have. I’m sure you know you were recorded, one of my men called our contact at the LVMPD, the chief will be here in a couple of minutes; he thinks his people may be able to locate a couple of the people you pointed out.” As the captain is speaking the door opens, the chief of the LVMPD and to staff walk in, the chief holds out his hand to Ron saying, “Ron, I understand you helped, I wanted to thank you.”

              “It’s my pleasure. Do you really think you can locate any of these people?”

              “Yes, we thought we knew who started the violence, and who may have pulled the trigger, the videos didn’t show enough detail. You provided the missing pieces. I sent cars to collect three people; we should hear very soon if they were successful.”

              The chief sits next to Ron pouring a cup of coffee when his cell rings, “Talk to me.”

Listening for a few minutes, the chief says, very good, book them and place them in separate cells, no one talks to them until I get there.”